


control is fog on a winter morning

by Romanec



Series: Unfair-Verse [1]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Cancer, Drabble, Gen, Hard lives and hard times, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-08
Updated: 2012-02-08
Packaged: 2017-10-30 20:06:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/335565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Romanec/pseuds/Romanec
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier had one thing in common -- the absolute need to be in control.</p>
<p>So of course one would get cancer. Of course.</p>
            </blockquote>





	control is fog on a winter morning

Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier had one thing in common.

_'...calling to inform you...'_

They both had the absolute need to be in control.

_'...come in for more tests...'_

Erik's came from pain. Living a life where the only one who had not been in control had been himself - passed from foster home to foster home, going wherever the Services told him to go and doing whatever his parents-of-the-time asked and demanded. His body of scars was a testament to what happened when he just followed orders, when he left himself and his life into the hands of others.

_'... it is extremely important that you come in as soon as possible...'_

Charles' came from quiet. From silence. From being alone for too long, from being given the air of control but never truly being able to grasp it. From seeing what was being done wrong but not being allowed to correct it. He had spent his life being responsible for himself but subject to the whims and orders of his absent mother and over-bearing stepfather. The nightmares of his sleep were his own scars, and Erik comforted them in the same way Charles soothed his scars.

" _Cancer_." Erik flinched at the emotionless crack in Charles' voice. "Of course."

They accepted that there were some things they couldn't control. The weather, the subway (not for lack of trying), politics, and their children on more than one occasion. But anything regarding themselves was something they were in command of.

"Yeah," he offered back unhelpfully, and lit a cigarette. _No Smoking!_ signs be damned, they were outside of the hospital, not in it. Huddled up in the sunlight against the cold winds of approaching autumn weather, Charles set on the dedicated marble bench, leaning against a supporting pillar, and stared at nothing. Erik stood and watched him.

"I have cancer," he enforced, toneless, stated. Erik nodded and inhaled so deeply his lungs burned from the oxygen and not the smoke.

"Yeah."

They liked to control each other. Pushing and shoving and biting and dominating. They fucked like that, and Erik took a certain bit of … pride in it. More than a bit, being able to control Charles fucking Xavier.

"It's going to suck."

Erik couldn’t control this.

"Yeah."

"...What do we tell the kids?" A soft, slight break - a peak of the hysteria that would soon be coming.

Erik blinked. "I don't know," he admitted. Charles sighed.

Chest suddenly heavy, Erik sat down beside his younger lover, sharing the space of the freezing bench. Charles took the cigarette from his fingers and took a deep, harsh breath.

The embers burned.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how long this set will be, but posts will variate in size between 100 words and 3000. :)


End file.
